I have a 24' pontoon with a recently transplanted 1978 Mercury outboard. It's a 700 series 70 hp motor with a 3 blade 12 pitch prop on it now. The boat does 18mph with an average load. My current WOT rpm is only 3500. I assume that is way low and hard on the motor. What I am looking for is to get the motor in it's optimal RPM range... I assume that will help with gas mileage and not be so hard on the motor. Also If I could pick up a few more mph that'd be great! We typically use it for cruising with a friends but if I could get better performance we may pull a tube or skier if possible.
